Theorizing the histories of colonialism and nationalism in the arab maghrib

Abstract

The field of Maghrib studies has always been marginal to the American academy-not quite African, not quite Arab, not quite European, the Maghrib inhabits a space between the essentialisms evoked by each. For Africans (and Africanists), North Africans were slavers and proto-imperialists whose historical experiences diverged from those of sub-Saharan Africa. As constituted in the United States, African studies has tended to see its terrain as Africa south of the Sahara, “black Africa” as opposed to “white Africa” (thereby mindlessly replicating colonial racisms). While Africa specialists are fully aware of the historical links between the two, such as the trans-Saharan gold trade, Islam, and Arabic culture, the field often proceeds as if the North were another world.